What Do I Need to Start an Etsy Shop (2026): Three Things for About $75

The first real purchase for an Etsy shop is not a camera or a logo. It is a shipping scale, because the marketplace charges by weight and a listing that guesses high adds a dollar or two of shipping to every order. Get the scale right, keep orders from taking over the kitchen counter, and you can open a real shop this week for about $75. Almost everything else the internet tells you to buy can wait until sales pay for it.

The three things below are what the first ten orders actually use. None of them is glamorous, and that is the point: the shop runs on weighed listings, packed boxes, and labels that print.

The three things

1. A 440 lb shipping scale ($35.69): Amazon Basics Digital Postal Scale, 440 lb Capacity Start here. A postal scale puts the real weight in each listing so the shipping label price matches what the listing promised. The Amazon Basics handles up to 440 pounds, and its tare function removes the box weight from the reading.
2. A 0.1 g kitchen scale (about $19): Etekcity Food Kitchen Scale, 0.1g with Bowl (11 lb) Jewelry, vinyl stickers, resin charms, and other small items benefit from gram precision, while a platform scale rounds to the ounce. The Etekcity reads to a tenth of a gram. If your shop sells nothing under 8 ounces, this is the one item to skip.
3. A packing tray ($15.53): Amazon Basics Wooden Serving Tray with Built-in Handles, Acacia Wood, 17 x 12 in. The unglamorous trick full-time sellers use: keep mailers, tissue, stickers, and string in one tray, so packing an order is grabbing the tray, not clearing the counter. When your shop lives on the kitchen table, the tray is the boundary between dinner and inventory. This acacia one is stiff, wipeable, and its handles make it a one-hand carry.

The two cheap things every shop still needs

6x9 poly mailers, 100-count, $6.79. iMBAPrice 6x9 Poly Mailers 100 Pack, Matte White is the budget pick: 100 matte-finish self-seal white mailers, under 7 cents each, the size every apparel and soft-goods shop starts with. Apparel and jewelry ship flat and cheap in 6x9, and 100 of them cost less than one bubble-mailer multipack at an office store. Buy your first batch in this size, then add sizes only when a listing demands it.

Heavy-duty packing tape with a dispenser, $13.99. Scotch Heavy Duty Shipping Packaging Tape with Dispenser is 1.88 inches by 38.2 yards on a start-and-go dispenser. The dispenser keeps the roll usable with one hand. Loose tape rolls find their own sticky way into packing trays and fur.

Together they add about $21 to the total when you want them, which is why they stay out of the headline number. Both are one-click buys once the first sale lands.

What to skip

Skip the label printer at first. Etsy prints paid labels on any printer, and the post office accepts a paper label taped flat. Skip the lightbox: a window, white foam board, and your phone outperform a $50 folding studio. Skip custom packaging and branded stickers until reviews exist, because buyers remember shipping speed before they remember ribbon. And skip the bulk rolls of bubble wrap; most orders this early ship padded with what your own deliveries brought you.

The total

$35.69 + $19 + $15.53 = $70.22 before tax, or about $75 with a little room for tax. Add the mailers and tape from the section above and the full packing setup is $91 before tax. Tighter start: your kitchen scale, a shoebox of mailers, and any tape gets a shop open for about $60. The scale is the first purchase either way, because every other cost scales with how honest your listing weights are.

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